Josiah Humphrey and Mark McDonald

Josiah Humphrey & Mark McDonald

 

Business: Appster

Age: Josiah Humphrey, 22, and Mark McDonald, 21

State: Victoria

 

Josiah Humphrey and Mark McDonald want to build the biggest app development company in the world.

 

And after launching their Melbourne-based technology software firm Appster two years ago, they’re on their way.

 

The pair are about to open offices in the US and Canada and are currently establishing an office in India where they’ve taken on a 100-person office floor, with the option to expand further in the next 12 months.

 

McDonald, speaking from India, says the international expansion is about working towards a 24-hour development cycle.

 

“We don’t see ourselves as an app company but an idea company,” McDonald says. “We’re always going to be pivoting around different technologies.”

 

Appster takes people’s ideas for apps and turns them into a reality.

 

They’re currently working on a host of projects around encryption, payment technology and public transport management.

 

They even have a client who’s a US soldier in Afghanistan who calls them about his project between operations.

 

Humphrey and McDonald have come a long way since they began working together at an early age after coming across each other’s work on the internet.

 

Humphrey says they’re like brothers, at one stage even sharing a single room in a share apartment with their beds barely 50cm apart.

 

Their advice for fellow young entrepreneurs is to have a big vision for their idea.

 

McDonald says people who can help the business grow are attracted to a big vision and want to be involved, while Humphrey says a big vision helps with motivation and drive.

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